Mariranan presidential election, 1968

Mariranan presidential election, 1968

15 June 1968
All 228 (204) electoral votes of the electoral college 114 (101) electoral votes needed to win
Turnout	91.72%; 6,473,829 votes
Nominee Romano Emanuele Orlando Jürgen Ostwald Emilio Štromajer Party APAR RPR IPAR Home state San Marco Ritaldi Vittico Electoral vote 102 58 44 States carried 3 2 1 Popular vote 2,907,884 1,616,515 1,828,856 Percentage 44.92% 24.97% 28.25%
File:Marirana election map 1968.png Results by province ■ – Romano Emanuele Orlando ■ – Jürgen Ostwald ■ – Raimondo Zamparini
President before election Paolo Di Quintino RPR Elected President Romano Emanuele Orlando APAR

The 41^th Mariranan presidential election was held on the 15^th June 1968. Former Governor of San Marco and nominee of the Authentic Anti-Revolutionary Party (APAR), Romano Emanuele Orlando, won a clear victory against his two opponents, Jürgen Ostwald of the Rally for the Republic (RPR) and Emilio Štromajer of the Intransigent Anti-Revolutionary Party (IPAR). It was the last election of the sixth republic and the last free election until 1987.

The election was preceded in the collapse of the Anti-Revolutionary Party, the dominant party of the fifth republic which had won the preceding three elections, as its progressive and conservative wings split into the APAR and IPAR respectively. The election was also preceded by the death of populist strongman Antonio Michelozzi who had dominated Mariranan politics for the preceding two decades. As such prior to the election the pact of democracy - the agreement between the PAR and RPR to respect electoral results in exchange for a power sharing system - broke down prior to the election as the rival factions of the PAR put forward different candidates, the Governor of San Marco Romano Emanuele Orlando and former president Emilio Štromajer. The RPR nominated Jürgen Ostwald, the speaker of parliament, as their candidate for president with the RPR sensing they would secure a victory for the first time since 1943.

The election was held in an atmosphere of intense political polarisation especially between the supporters of Orlando and Štromajer, with both claiming to be the legitimate heirs of Michelozzi's legacy as Orlando campaigned on a social democratic populist platform and Štromajer a more moderate conservative one. The election saw Orlando win the provinces of Mederio, Catacosi and crucially San Marco enabling him to get a bare majority of electoral votes (102) and ascend to the presidency. Orlando would later be ousted from the presidency in 1972 in a military coup backed by his political opponents, ending both his presidency and the fifth republic.

Electoral system

In the 1968 election Marirana used an electoral college of 204 members with votes assigned via province. 52 electoral votes came from San Marco, 44 from Vittico, 35 from Ritaldi, 30 from Catacosi, 23 from Umbertide and 20 from Mederio, with the electoral distribution being based on population. The electoral distribution numbers for the electoral vote was fixed since 1938 on population - this was due to the political establishment who drafted the pact of democracy feared that electoral redistribution would lead to government's giving themselves an unfair advantage. The former province of Cittadella - at the time claimed by Marirana - was assigned 24 electors but due to the fact that the province was not in Marirana's control Cittadella's electors were considered blank votes.

Candidates to win the election had to win 50%+ of electoral votes to win the presidency. If a candidate failed to achieve this or two candidates both got 102 votes the election would be decided by a majority vote in the parliamentary assembly in a joint sitting between the Councillors and Senators between the two highest ranked candidates.

Background

The last election in 1963 had seen Antonio Michelozzi elected to a third non-consecutive term as president. Michelozzi had dominated Mariranan politics since the creation of the populist Anti-Revolutionary party in 1940, signing the pact with democracy with the rival Rally for the Republic in 1943. The pact of democracy was an agreement between the two parties that attempted to formalise peaceful transfers of power within a country that had never experienced such a transfer in its history; under the pact the runner up of the election would be appointed to the post of vice-president. As such following the 1963 election RPR member Paolo Di Quintino was appointed vice-president.

Prior to his death Michelozzi had grown increasingly estranged from his anointed successor president Emilio Štromajer during Štromajer's term from 1961-1963, publicly criticising him and attempting to find a new protege. This led to tensions within the party when he tapped Romano Emanuele Orlando, the Governor of San Marco who had close links to trade union groups, as his chosen successor. When Michelozzi died the supporters of Štromajer and Orlando within the Anti-Revolutionary Party attempted to respectively assert their power over the party. At the 1966 Anti-Revolutionary Party convention the party failed to appoint a National Executive Board due to the disagreements between the two factions, effectively depriving the party of its organisational apparatus. Due to the disagreement over the NEB appointments the supporters of Štromajer walked out of the convention, ending the Anti-Revolutionary Party as a unified faction. With the NEB effectively liquidated and half of the party machine supporting Štromajer, the PAR effectively became two parties - the autentico who identified as supporters of Orlando and the intransigenti who identified as supporters of Štromajer. The autentico became the Authentic Anti-Revolutionary Party who largely supported centre-left populist policies and the intransigenti became the Intransigent Anti-Revolutionary Party who were more conservative.

Candidates

Candidate name and age political party			Political office(s)	Details
	Romano Emanuele Orlando (54) Authentic Anti-Revolutionary Party		Governor of San Marco (1960-1968)	The governor of San Marco, Orlando had been the protege of Antonio Michelozzi and leader of the left-wing of the Anti-Revolutionary Party. Leading the Authentic Anti-Revolutionary Party Orlando promoted a mix of Michelozzi's previous populist policies and a series of social democratic measures with more nationalisations and an expanded welfare system.
	Jürgen Ostwald (46) Rally for the Republic		Speaker of the House of Councillors (1962-1968)	The speaker of parliament, Ostwald was part of a prominent business family who had emigrated from Werania. Ostwald largely focused on painting the internal divisions in the PAR as proof they were unfit to govern whilst utilising anti-communist rhetoric against Orlando.
	Emilio Štromajer (56) Intransigent Anti-Revolutionary Party		President of Marirana (1958-1963)	The former president of Marirana, Štromajer was the former protege of Michelozzi and leader of the right-wing of the PAR, leading the Intransigent Anti-Revolutionary Party. Štromajer like Uccello also focused on anti-communism, but also sought to present his platform as populist promising greater rural subsidies and continuing import-substitution industrialisation.

Results

Candidate		Party	Votes	%	Electoral Vote
	Romano Emanuele Orlando	Authentic Anti-Revolutionary Party	2,907,884	44.92%	102 / 204
	Jürgen Ostwald	Rally for the Republic	1,616,515	24.97%	58 / 204
	Emilio Štromajer	Intransigent Anti-Revolutionary Party	1,828,856	28.25%	44 / 204
Invalid/blank votes			120573	-
Total			6,473,829	100
Registered voters/turnout			7,058,252	91.72%

Popular vote Romano Emanuele Orlando   44.92% Emilio Štromajer   28.25% Jürgen Ostwald   24.97%

Electoral vote Romano Emanuele Orlando   50.00% Jürgen Ostwald   28.43% Emilio Štromajer   21.57%